Don't use PMO to shield corruption: BJP to Robert Vadra

New Delhi: The BJP on Thursday hit out at Congress president Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra over alleged land scam, saying that the Prime Minister's Office can't be used to shield corruption.

"Haryana and Rajasthan governments helped Vadra. How can PMO be used to shield corruption?" BJP's Chief Spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said. He was reacting to the PMO's reply to Allahabad High Court in the Vadra case.

The PMO had said the allegations regarding irregular land dealings between Robert Vadra and real estate major DLF "appear to be false, based on heresay and vexatious".

The PMO had said the allegations regarding irregular land dealings between Robert Vadra and real estate major DLF "appear to be false, based on heresay and vexatious".

In an affidavit to the Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court, the PMO also said the petition filed by local activist Nutan Thakur seeking a direction for a probe into the land dealings Vadra, son-in-law of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, had with DLF in Haryana was based on media reports about purely commercial transactions, which had been countered by both Vadra and DLF.

The PMO affidavit came in response to a notice issued by a division bench of Justice Umakant Singh and Justice Virendra Kumar Dikshit on October 11 to the Centre listing objections to the maintainability of the petition filed by Thakur.

The bench had given three weeks time to the Centre to reply. A copy of the PMO affidavit reached Thakur on November 26, Thakur's lawyer Ashok Pandey said.

Activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal had leveled allegations of irregular land dealings between against Vadra and DLF.